Health literacy and its association with acceptance of family planning methods among Mexican women at reproductive risk

Introduction: According to figures from the United Nations Population Forum, maternal mortality has decreased by 44% globally. However, there are still reports of 830 women dying every day from pregnancy-related causes. In Mexico, the states with the highest number of maternal deaths are the State of Mexico, Puebla, and Veracruz, with a predominance of women aged 20 to 34. Health literacy (HL) is a biopsychosocial self-care tool that has demonstrated clinical benefits in chronic noncommunicable diseases. HL and its association with the acceptance of family planning methods (FPM) in women at obstetric risk is limited. Main objective: To determine the association between health literacy and the acceptance of family planning methods in Mexican women at reproductive risk. Methodology: Cross-sectional and analytical study of women aged 20 to 44 years at a primary care center in Mexico. The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire was administered, and Pearson's chi-square statistical test was used to obtain ORs with 95% CI. A p-value of <0.05 was considered to indicate dependence on factors. Results: Of a total of 244 women, the median age was 29 years, 42.2% were married, 62.3% had a high school education, and 36.5% were homemakers. Inadequate AS was associated with non-acceptance of MPF with an OR of 16.35 (8.66-30.86) and p= 0.01. Conclusions: The findings suggest that inadequate AS increases the risk of non-acceptance of MPF, which highlights the importance of using psychobehavioral variables in Mexican women and their families to provide personalized medicine and reduce reproductive and obstetric complications.